A Film by Sergei Loznitsa

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "A Film by Sergei Loznitsa"

Brian Leonard
6 years ago
Views:

1 R E V U E A Film by Sergei Loznitsa 72 minutes / b&w / 35mm / Germany / Russia / Ukraine produced by ma.ja.de. filmproduktion in co-production with St. Petersburg Documentary Film Studio and MDR in association with YLE TEEMA and Inspiration Films An Icarus Films Release 32 Court Street, 21 st floor / Brooklyn, NY T (718) / (800) / F (718) / mail@icarusfilms.com

SYNOPSIS As he did with his critically-acclaimed BLOCKADE, a documentary re-creation of the WWII siege of Leningrad, filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa has once again scoured the Russian film archives for

2 SYNOPSIS As he did with his critically-acclaimed BLOCKADE, a documentary re-creation of the WWII siege of Leningrad, filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa has once again scoured the Russian film archives for REVUE, selecting excerpts from newsreels, propaganda films, TV shows and feature films that present an evocative portrait of Soviet life during the 1950s and 1960s. With scenes taken from the length and breadth of the Soviet Motherland, REVUE illustrates industry and agriculture (dam construction, steel plants, Stakhanovite labor competitions, farmland seeded by hand and plowed with horse), political life (local elections, abundant Lenin iconography, speeches by Khrushchev, the threat of capitalist spies), popular culture (a village choir, a dance troupe, a travelling cinema, poetry readings for workers, a propagandistic stage play), and technology (space exploration, astronaut Yuri Gargarin, new industrial development). The film s fascinating flow of disparate scenes representing typical Soviet life of the period is, seen from today s perspective, alternately poignant, funny, and tragic. The cumulative impact reveals a life of hardship, deprivation and seemingly absurd social rituals, but one always inspired by the vision, or illusion, of a communist future. Seen from these dual historical and contemporary perspectives, REVUE is both a nostalgic and instructive look back at a communist past that represents social engineering on a grand, and frightening, scale.

FESTIVALS AND AWARDS Rotterdam International Documentary Film Festival BAFICI Buenos Aires

International Film Festival IndieLisboa Film Festival REVIEW EXCERPT Loznitsa's

anyone interested in glimpsing the disappeared Soviet experience.

3 FESTIVALS AND AWARDS Rotterdam International Documentary Film Festival BAFICI Buenos Aires Film Festival Golden Horn (Best Feature-Length Documentary) Cracow Film Festival Mediawave International Film Festival IndieLisboa Film Festival REVIEW EXCERPT Loznitsa's narration-free compilation of documentary scenes from the Soviet way of life is a must for anyone interested in glimpsing the disappeared Soviet experience. An unorthodox iconography of society, culture and politics in the old U.S.S.R. Louis Menashe, Polytechnic Institute of New York University

4 ABOUT THE FILMMAKER Sergei Loznitsa was born on September 5th, 1964 in Baranovitchi, in Belarus, which at that time was part of the Soviet Union. His family later moved to Kiev, Ukraine, where Loznitsa attended high school and later graduated with a degree in engineering and mathematics from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. It was while employed as a scientist at the Institute of Cybernetics, from 1987 to 1991, that Loznitsa developed an interest in cinema and in 1991 he applied to the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. He passed a rigorous selection process and in 1997 Loznitsa graduated with a major in film production and direction. His first documentaries, including Today We Are Going to Build a House (1996) and Life, Autumn (1998), won awards at film festivals in Leipzig, Tel Aviv, St. Petersburg, and Vila do Conde, Portugal. In 2000, he began producing documentaries at the Documentary Films Studio in St. Petersburg, including The Train Stop (2000), The Settlement (2001), Portrait (2002), Landscape (2003), and Factory (2004). Loznitsa s most recent documentary films, BLOCKADE (2005) and REVUE (), are compilation historical documentaries that utilize archival footage from Soviet archives, much of it made available to filmmakers for the first time. BLOCKADE is comprised entirely of silent footage of the Siege of Leningrad during WWII, to which Loznitsa has added an evocative soundtrack of natural sound effects, bringing the footage vividly to life. With BLOCKADE, writes Denise Youngblood in The Russian Review, Loznitsa has taken a different and imaginative approach to the compilation documentary, calling it One of the most important Russian movies of the last decade. In a similar manner, REVUE is made up entirely of excerpts from newsreels, propaganda films, TV shows and feature films that present an evocative portrait of Soviet life during the 1950s and 1960s. Both films are distinguished by their lack of a conventional narration or voice-over. As Loznitsa explains his approach, If I put in a voice-over, I offer my view, and that means I exclude the possibility of the viewer having his own view. He has either to agree with me or not agree with me. Filmography Today We Are Going to Build a House ( Сегодня мы построем дом ), 1996, together with Marat Magambetow Life, Autumn ( Жизнь, осень ), 1998, together with Marat Magambetow The Train Stop ( Полустанок ), 2000 The Settlement ( Поселение ), 2001 Portrait ( Портрет ), 2002 Landscape ( Пейзаж ), 2003 Factory ( Фабрика ), 2004 Blockade ( Блокада ), 2005 Artel ( Артель ), 2006 Revue ( Представление ),

5 CREDITS Written and Directed by SERGEI LOZNITSA Producer Heino Deckert Sound Vladimir Golovnitsky Archive Researchers Sergei Gelver Vladimir Kuchinsky Editor SERGEI LOZNITSA Foley Vytautas Leistrumas Giedrius Kiela Sound Mixing Ivo Heger Production Manager Sebastian Gassner Meike Martens Vladimir Kuchinsky Line producer Svetlana Zinovieva Nelli Levitskaya Co-Producers Heino Deckert Viacheslav Telnov Archival Footage Material aus den Wochenschauen Unser Land des Dokumentarfilmstudios Leningrad A Coproduction of ma.ja.de. filmproduktion FGUP TPO St. Petersburg Documentary Film Studio MDR

6 Also with the Cooperation of Inspiration Films YLE Teema Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung The Hubert Bals Fund of the International Film Festival Rotterdam Filmwerkstatt der Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography An Icarus Films Release

a film by Sergei Loznitsa AUSTERLITZ

a film by Sergei Loznitsa AUSTERLITZ -1- IMPERATIV FILM presents AUSTERLITZ a film by Sergei Loznitsa documentary - 94 min - b/w - 1.85:1-5.1 - Germany - 2016 International Sales: Imperativ Film info@loznitsa.com